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War is a common and devastating experience for many countries. Necessity has driven the invention of destructive weapons, such as tanks, which have caused massive casualties in battle.
War is the most bitter human event; But it is not possible to name a country and a land whose people have not been plagued by bloody wars. On the other hand, you must have heard that they say that necessity is the mother of invention and in all bloody wars we see many inventions to destroy people, the tank is a deadly invention that has killed hundreds of fighting soldiers in the battlefields. Here we are going to take a look at the largest tank formation in the history of bloody military wars.
Battle of Cambrai (1917)
For the first time in history, the men who participated in this battle witnessed the first major confrontation of tanks against each other. According to Hew Strachan, the historian, in the years 1292 to 1296 AD, the battlefields saw many new equipment such as airplanes and tanks.
It was exactly on November 29, 1296, that the British army attacked the French city of Cambrai, which was occupied by the Germans at that time, with 476 tanks, 378 of which were military. The German soldiers were initially surprised by the enormity of the enemy’s line of fire, which was covered by the tanks, but eventually responded with a counterattack.
Battles of Khalkhin Gol (1939)
In that year, a great battle took place between the tanks of the Russian army and the Japanese army on the border of Mongolia and Siberia. The battle started with the occupation of the disputed areas by the Red Army.
After Japan’s relative success, it was Russia that counterattacked with an army of 58,000 soldiers, about 500 tanks and 250 aircraft under the command of General Gorgi Zakhov. On that bloody day, the temperature exceeded 40 degrees Celsius, which led to the machine guns overheating and malfunctioning. In this battle, Russian T-26 tanks came to the aid of the Red Army, and this made them overcome the old Japanese tanks. The pride of the Japanese would not allow them to be defeated and the Japanese soldiers fought to the last breath, it is said that Lt. Sadakaji riding on a tank with his samurai sword advanced so far into the territory of the Russian forces that he was finally cut to pieces by the Red Army soldiers.
All the Japanese forces, whose number was more than 61 thousand people, were killed and wounded in this battle. On the other hand, 7,974 Russian soldiers were killed and 15,251 were wounded.
Battle of Arras (1917)
The Arras region in northern France has witnessed many bloody battles, during World War II, British forces resisted the German army’s lightning attack to access the northern French coastal areas. On the 31st of April 1319, the British soldiers were ordered to counterattack against the German attack. In this attack, which was known as Frank Force, two infantry battalions consisting of 2000 soldiers were present along with 74 tanks.
BBC has described the Battle of Arras as follows: At June 1, 1319, the British forces were divided into two groups, the first group quickly attacked the German positions and captured some of them, the British were proud of their victory and They quickly attacked the German infantry base and the SS headquarters, it was here that the Germans managed to resist the British with their air force. Meanwhile, the second group of British forces, which attacked from the left side, attacked the 7th wing of the German Panzer unit under the command of Brigadier General Arwin Rommel and made significant progress. Finally, the ground cover of this area came to the aid of the British and made them retreat to their main base to end the first day of this bloody battle. The next day, it was the Germans who continued to advance by gathering their forces.
In Operation Frank Force, 400 German soldiers were captured and another 400 soldiers were killed and wounded. The extent of the deaths and injuries inflicted on the Germans was such that they thought that at least 5 British battalions were involved in this operation.
Battle of Brody (1941)
Before the Battle of Kursk in 1321, the Battle of Brady was the largest tank battle in World War II. This battle took place in the early days of Operation Barbarossa with the rapid advance of the Germans in the area between the three cities of Dubno, Latsk and Brady. 800 German Axis tanks lined up against 3,500 Russian troops.
In this fight, which lasted for 4 days, the Germans came out of the field victorious and finally the Russians were forced to retreat. In this bloody battle, for the first time, the Germans faced the Russian T-34s tank, which was practically unaffected by the German weapons. But in the end, this Russian tank could not break a knot and the Germans with the support of their air force were able to destroy about 201 Russian tanks. It is said that the reason for 50% of the failure of the Russians was the weakness of the logistics force, technical problems and the lack of equipment. In total, in the battle of Brady, the Russians lost 800 tanks, while only 200 German tanks were damaged in this battle.
Second Battle of El Alamein (1942)
This battle is the only battle in which the British managed to win the field without the help of American forces. It is true that the American forces were not present in this fight, but still the American Sherman tanks that were quickly transferred from America to Egypt to participate in this battle played a significant role.
Erwin Rommel, nicknamed the Desert Fox, commanded the German forces against General Bernard Montgomery, who was known as Monty among his soldiers, in this decisive battle. Rommel suffered from a severe illness and this illness was so severe that he had to go to the military hospital for treatment at the end of this battle. General Georg Stumme, who replaced Rommel in this battle, also died of a heart attack. In general, it can be said that luck was not with the Germans in this battle because they did not have much fuel.
In this battle, which led to the victory of the Allies, both German and British sides lost about 500 tanks, the Germans also retreated after this heavy defeat, and the Allied forces did not show the appropriate speed of action to follow the Germans.
Battle of Kursk (1943)
After the German defeat at Stalingrad, Nazi officers set out to prepare a bold attack on Kusk. The battle of Kusk was the biggest and longest confrontation of the German armored army against the Russians; In this battle, 3,000 German tanks lined up against about 6,000 Russian tanks.
Despite being outnumbered by Russian tanks, the German tanks still handled the Red Army military machine well.
Anthony Beevor, as a historian, has said about this war: a single SS tank was able to destroy 22 Russian tanks within an hour. In this battle, Russian soldiers boldly approached enemy tanks and threw mines under them. The smoke and noise on the battlefield was so great that the communication between the German units was cut off. In this battle, even the tanks tried to knock the other out of the field. The burning smell of destroyed tanks was spread all over the battlefield.
After eight days of full-scale tank warfare, in which the air force and infantry also participated, the Russians managed to win a partial victory. Each German panzer tank was able to remove 5 Russian tanks from the field, and if we want to take a close look at the statistics, the Germans lost 760 tanks in this battle, while 3,800 Russian tanks were destroyed. In terms of dead and wounded, the Germans had 54,182 dead and the Russians lost 177,847 soldiers in this bloody battle.
Battle of Arracourt (1944)
This area, which is located in Lorraine, France, witnessed the biggest American tank battle in 1321. In this battle, two brigades and two divisions of German Panzer tanks were destroyed by American 75mm Sherman tanks. Relying on map reading and the power of infantry, artillery, and air force, the Americans were able to overcome the German tanks and advance Montgomery’s 21st Corps in the north.
262 German tanks lined up in front of the Americans in this battle, of which 86 German tanks were destroyed and 144 other tanks were heavily damaged. Americans lost only 25 tanks in this battle.
Battle of Chawinda (1965)
After World War II, Chavinda battle is considered the biggest tank battle. Chavinda witnessed the formation of 132 Pakistani tanks against 225 Indian tanks. In this battle, Indians have Centurion tanks and Pakistanis have used Patton tanks.
Needless to say, both sides used Sherman tanks. The Ravi Chenab canal that connected Kashmir to India was the place where this great war took place. At first, Indians hope to cut off the route of Sialkot city from Lahore, so as to prevent supplies from reaching the Pakistani army.
The heat of the war intensified on Saturday 27 September of the same year with the attack of the Pakistan Air Force. Then Phillora area witnessed a big battle between Indian and Pakistani tanks. In this battle, the Indians had to surrender and withdraw by giving 120 tanks, this was only because 40 Pakistani tanks were destroyed.
Battle of Valley of Tears (1973)
During the Yom Kippur battle, Israeli forces lined up against a coalition of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. The goals of the coalition forces were to push back Israel from the Sinai heights. This battle was extended to the heights of the Golan Heights, where it became so large that only 7 tanks remained from two Israeli brigades with 150 tanks, and the rest were destroyed. The Syrian army followed up with another attack when 13 damaged tanks rushed to the aid of the Israeli forces along with soldiers who had been discharged from the hospital.
This nineteen-day battle becomes the largest tank encounter on the battlefield in the region after the World War. 1,700 Israeli tanks, 63 percent of which were destroyed in this battle, along with 3,430 tanks of the coalition forces, of which about 2,250 were destroyed, were present in this battle.
Battle of 73 Easting (1991)
This battle is known as the last major tank engagement of the 20th century, with a large number of M3 Bradley tanks and nine M1A1 Abrams against 85 Iraqi tanks, including Russian T-55s and T-72 models, in the Iraqi desert. They lined up.
In this battle, once again advanced technology came to the aid of the Americans and the use of GPS made them plan their attacks in advance. The Abrams M1A1 tank has a range of 2,500 meters, while the effective range of Iraqi tanks’ bullets was 2,000 meters, which helped the Americans to experience a terrible defeat for the Iraqi forces.
About 600 Iraqi soldiers were killed and wounded in this battle, while the losses of the Americans were about 50 soldiers and 57 soldiers were wounded, interestingly, most of the injuries inflicted on the Americans were caused by the wrong shooting of their own soldiers.
Finally, 85 Iraqi tanks were destroyed in this battle and it is interesting to know that the Americans lost only one of their tanks.
